Cat Russia Prison Phone Smuggling Is Out of the Bag

Guards show a cat they caught while it was on a clandestine mission at the Penal Colony No. 1 near the city of Syktyvkar in the Komi province, 1,000 kilometers (some 600 miles) northeast of Moscow, Russia.

"Two packages were taped to the animal’s back. When the packages were unwrapped, guard's found objects prohibited in the penitentiary facility–two cell phones with batteries and chargers," Russia’s regional prison service said in a statement released to state-run RIA Novosti.

"They have foiled various attempts to smuggle banned objects into Prison Colony Number One before, but in the case of the cat. The prison colony is at a loss: nothing like this has happened in the prison’s history," the statement read.

Prison authorities later released a photo of the black-and-white cat being held up by the scruff of its neck by a guard. The bulky contraband remains attached to its fur in the photo.

Russian authorities did not say what will happen to the cell phone smuggling cat.
Contraband smuggling cats are apparently nothing new in Russia, where in the past felines have been trained to smuggle drugs into various prison facilities throughout the country.

Last year, agents found a cat which had its collar stuffed with heroin attempting to gain entry into a prison facility in southern Russia’s Rostov Region, RIA reported.

Russia isn't the only place where cats are employed by inmates to smuggle in banned materials.

In addition to the saw blades and drill parts used for drilling though concrete, which authorities say could have been used to dig a tunnel, additional contraband smuggled in by the cat included earphones, a cellphone with a battery, and a charger, O Globo newspaper reported.

Much like in the recent cell phone smuggling cat in Russia, the fate of Brazil's feline smuggler is also unknown.